Strange Colored Dots or Flickering Pixels in Some Games – Should I Return My AMD GPU?

[sarah567]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an AMD GPU, and while performance has generally been good, I’ve started to notice a strange issue in some games (not all):

Occasionally, I see small colored pixel dots or flickering specks in certain areas — often in dark scenes or during post-processed effects. They’re not persistent and don’t happen in every game, but when they do, it looks odd and distracting.

These artifacts closely resemble what’s shown in this video (not mine):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX2vt8gGYZE
Note: I have never faced this problem in the game mentioned in the video, but the glitch looks very similar to what I see in other titles.

I’ve tried fully reinstalling the GPU drivers multiple times using DDU, but the issue still appears in some games. Temperatures are normal, and everything else seems stable.

What I’m trying to figure out:

• Could this be a hardware defect or VRAM issue with my card?

• Is it just something normal due to how some games handle anti-aliasing or post-processing (like TAA or sharpening)?

• Most importantly: Should I return the GPU under warranty before it’s too late, or is this kind of artifact not a cause for concern?
   

I’d really appreciate any input — especially if you’ve had similar issues or can confirm whether this is typical behavior for AMD cards.
These are some screenshots from my computer of some games where the problem appears.
and This is a video link from my computer screen in the quarry game :
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7yokh1ojj4pmxa7oxk5gf/The-quary-game-glish.mp4?rlkey=bhvlm4egl4gyxyq4lz40923i7&st=kqz4jq84&dl=0
Thanks a lot!

[Hinjima]

1 hour ago, sarah567 said:

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an AMD GPU, and while performance has generally been good, I’ve started to notice a strange issue in some games (not all):

Occasionally, I see small colored pixel dots or flickering specks in certain areas — often in dark scenes or during post-processed effects. They’re not persistent and don’t happen in every game, but when they do, it looks odd and distracting.

These artifacts closely resemble what’s shown in this video (not mine):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX2vt8gGYZE
Note: I have never faced this problem in the game mentioned in the video, but the glitch looks very similar to what I see in other titles.

I’ve tried fully reinstalling the GPU drivers multiple times using DDU, but the issue still appears in some games. Temperatures are normal, and everything else seems stable.

What I’m trying to figure out:

• Could this be a hardware defect or VRAM issue with my card?

• Is it just something normal due to how some games handle anti-aliasing or post-processing (like TAA or sharpening)?

• Most importantly: Should I return the GPU under warranty before it’s too late, or is this kind of artifact not a cause for concern?
   

I’d really appreciate any input — especially if you’ve had similar issues or can confirm whether this is typical behavior for AMD cards.
These are some screenshots from my computer of some games where the problem appears.
Thanks a lot!

 

 

That doesn't look right at all!

Are the colors always green?

 

You have done what you should with DDU and you have checked your temperatures.

Might be a bit early for me to say this without testing further but if you are within warranty I would RMA it.

[CatTNT]

Ensure no automatic overclocks or any overclocks are being used. This looks similar to when I overclock the shit out of my RTX 4080 VRAM and it's technically stable but shows these things, also as the guy above days ensure no temperatures are too high and use DDU at least 2 times to completely uninstall all graphics drivers and AMD software. Then reinstall them. 

[191x7]

Things like that can happen when having RAM issues; unstable RAM, broken RAM, or a bad overclock. Test your RAM with Memtest86+ or Passmark Memtest86.

[sarah567]

22 hours ago, Hinjima said:

That doesn't look right at all!

Are the colors always green?

 

You have done what you should with DDU and you have checked your temperatures.

Might be a bit early for me to say this without testing further but if you are within warranty I would RMA it.

Yes, I think the graphics card temperatures are normal, and I don't think they're the cause of the problem. I also noticed something strange: disabling the SSAO option in the game settings for The Quarry solved the problem. The same thing happened in a Plague tale when FSR was enabled.
Here's a video of my screen that shows the problem more clearly, if you're interested :
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7yokh1ojj4pmxa7oxk5gf/The-quary-game-glish.mp4?rlkey=bhvlm4egl4gyxyq4lz40923i7&st=kqz4jq84&dl=0
Thanks.

[Hinjima]

1 hour ago, sarah567 said:

Yes, I think the graphics card temperatures are normal, and I don't think they're the cause of the problem. I also noticed something strange: disabling the SSAO option in the game settings for The Quarry solved the problem. The same thing happened in a Plague tale when FSR was enabled.
Here's a video of my screen that shows the problem more clearly, if you're interested :
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7yokh1ojj4pmxa7oxk5gf/The-quary-game-glish.mp4?rlkey=bhvlm4egl4gyxyq4lz40923i7&st=kqz4jq84&dl=0
Thanks.

Hmm okay.  I still don't like those black squares flickering constantly.

From experience, flickering squares in black, green or purple is a sign of bad VRAM.

Temperatures look good in this clip as well.

 

Its difficult to 'test' when I dont have the system in hand.